Small Form Factor (SFX) PSU review: power supplies for small PCs

Four SFX PSUs for Mini-ITX systems

By Koen CrijnsFriday 4 January 2013 05:58

Capacity and voltages

Being able to deliver the full capacity is one thing, be able to do it efficiently is just as important. According to ATX specifications they can deviate up to 5 percent, which means that values below 11.4V or above 12.5V can cause instability. So the closer to 12.0, the better. For the 5V line the voltages should be between 4.75 and 5.25V.

The FSP is already in the danger zone with the 200W test, and falls below the 11.4 V limit with the 300W test. The SilverStone 450W standard version also passes the 5% threshold with the 400W test, but remains above it with the 200W and 300W tests. With the Seasonic and SilverStone 450W Gold there is nothing to criticise in this area.